Cook challenges England to back up Lord’s win

England captain Alastair Cook has called on his players to back up their thrilling victory at Lord's last week when the second Test against New Zealand gets underway on Friday at Headingley.

The Three Lions beat the Black Caps by 124-runs at the home cricket in an exciting Test match that seems to have got the public back on their side, for now, after a turbulent few months for English cricket.

There were some wonderful individual hilights with the skipper himself scoring 162 in the second innings while allrounder Ben Stokes hit his first century in England and also took three wickets to win the game.

Cook told reporters on Thursday: "It was a fantastic week at Lord's but the challenge for us players is can we back up a great performance, especially the last three days of that Test match.

"We never once spoke about winning that match at Lord's, we focused on ourselves and it seemed to work well. So we'll concentrate on how we want to go about our business and how well, the result should take care of itself.

"If we do it well, we're a tough side to beat. If we do it badly, New Zealand are very good side."